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North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 6:51 pm
by Nick
The North Loop as a neighborhood is really coming together. It's one of the few places in town where, if you stand in just the right place, look in just the right direction, and squint just right, we damn near look like a real city.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: December 31st, 2012, 7:04 pm
by mulad
The picture did remind me of a time I went to visit the Arbor Lakes area of Maple Grove and check out the New Urbanish developments there, an area still dominated by parking lots and 1- and 2-story buildings. On the way back, I happened to take I-394 into Minneapolis and got dumped out on Washington Avenue. With the time I spent in Maple Grove, the buildings there were actually starting to feel relatively big, but landing in one of the taller areas of Minneapolis outside of the downtown core quickly reminded me of how wimpy most suburban development plans really are.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 7th, 2013, 2:32 pm
by beykite
Looking at this map by DaPerpKazoo, anyone have any guesses as to when/if the warehouse district will reach 10,000 pop/sqmi or 20,000 pop/sqmi? Seems like 10,000 is definitely in reach with all the projects going on, especially with how much space there is for more in the future.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 7th, 2013, 3:51 pm
by min-chi-cbus
Isn't the area already close to 10K ppsm? The size of the North Loop is definitely less than a square mile, and the population has to be close to (if not exceeding) 5,000 people by now....I see the area being about 30K to 45K ppsm upon full build-out, which would mean no more vacant structures or open lots.

According to the 2010 Census:
Tract 3501 had 1,384 people (very little of it is in the livable part of the North Loop)
Tract 3502 had 2,132 people (100% of it is in the North Loop)
Tract 1046 had 3,367 people (very little of it is in the North Loop)

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer

I don't know what the sizes are of those tracts though.....if somebody can find that.....

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 7th, 2013, 3:57 pm
by mattaudio
My guess is a lot of the discrepancies on the margins have to do with where the census boundaries lie. Census tracts oftentimes lump neighborhoods together or add in congruous industrial/low-population areas.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 8th, 2013, 4:44 pm
by Andrew_F
The census block for the North Loop includes a lot of industrial/light commercial. http://www.usa.com/MN053126200.html

Census block groups and census blocks are both smaller than census tracts, and would paint a clearer picture of density, but would have taken much more time to map and would make less visual sense when looking at larger swaths of the city/metro.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 30th, 2013, 7:12 pm
by twincitizen
Get the full story on North Loop park plans: http://finance-commerce.com/2013/01/nor ... een-space/

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 30th, 2013, 9:41 pm
by Aville_37
Great article. Thanks for posting as I don't have an account w/ F&C.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 30th, 2013, 10:22 pm
by beykite
Was the guy who makes the fancy maps sick today?

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&m ... a473860f49

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 30th, 2013, 10:49 pm
by minntransplant
Nice to see the residents pushing for this. A great park and elementary school is exactly what this neighborhood needs--that and more 3+ bedroom units. If Minneapolis wants to retain a healthy and diverse downtown population, it needs more than single people and childless couples.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 31st, 2013, 7:56 am
by min-chi-cbus
The North Loop as a neighborhood is really coming together. It's one of the few places in town where, if you stand in just the right place, look in just the right direction, and squint just right, we damn near look like a real city.
The funniest part about this is that you have to stand in just the right place, look in just the right direction, and squint just right......and I'm envisioning the thought process of those people who try to show off their city or its density through pictures, and I think "I wonder what the building JUST to the right of this picture looks like".....

Why can't we just look like a "real" city walking down Avenue X in the Y neighborhood in town? To me, that's when a city feels large and "legitimate" -- when you don't have to pose just right to feel its presence. Maybe someday, huh?

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 31st, 2013, 8:01 am
by min-chi-cbus
Nice to see the residents pushing for this. A great park and elementary school is exactly what this neighborhood needs--that and more 3+ bedroom units. If Minneapolis wants to retain a healthy and diverse downtown population, it needs more than single people and childless couples.
There has been an article or two from the Strib already addressing what you just said, so I think the city is aware of this. Let's just hope they listen, but I'm not sure how they can make some of these things happen (without subsidies, anyways).

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 31st, 2013, 10:01 am
by woofner
From the F&C article:
“To move this project forward, you need other partners,” Karasov said. “I do think this will happen. It will take time. And it needs to happen. North Loop is an important neighborhood for the vitality of the city as a whole.”
...
“It’s challenging, it really is,” Chamberlain said. “Our strategy is really to rely on partnerships. When we’re considering new open space, we need partners. …The Park Board will not be able to accomplish it on our own, by any means.”
If only there were some kind of political contest that would motivate politicians to compete to come up with the best plan for financing and implementing a greening strategy for our notoriously dull, concrete downtown... too bad the Mayoral candidates will just focus on the national issues that the party activists care about and are completely irrelevant to the position they're bidding for...

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 31st, 2013, 10:39 am
by MotorCity2TwinCities
I've always thought that the surface parking lot between the library and Washington Ave would be a great place for a park since Cancer Survivor's Park is right there! It could be combined with Cancer Survivor's park by just ending Nicollet at S. 3rd as it dead ends at Washington Avenue anyways.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 31st, 2013, 11:55 am
by MplsTodd
Was the guy who makes the fancy maps sick today?

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&m ... a473860f49
I'd advocate to have a new park with frontage on both 3rd Street and Washington Avenue. I think this corresponds to Option D, or the middle two squares of the S-shaped parcels. This would help break up what is an overly long block, making the area more walkable. Being adjacent to both The Herschel and the former HGA office building would provide activity during the day and at night/weekends, plus provide some eyes on the plaza to enhance security. Plus there's more development opportunities for the parking lots adjacent to Bunkers and the lot at 3rd Street and 7th Avenue.
The trick will be finding funding for it. A combination of City funds, neighborhood surcharges and donations by a wealthy patron could be looked at. As a neighborhood amenity, I would think that a modest surcharge could be added to property taxes for properties in the surrounding blocks, scaled based on proximity to the park. This could be modeled after the Nicollet Mall Improvement District (special assessments) or the downtown BID. I'd also like it if we could get another wealthy person to consider making a major donation to the city's quality of life, such as provided by United Healthcare's Bill McGuire for Gold Medal Park or Paul Allen did for Seatlle Commons near Lake Union.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: January 31st, 2013, 1:52 pm
by fehler
I'd rather see a linear park/trail connecting the neighborhood to the river, with smaller lot "bumpouts". Too much of the area is superblock/walls.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: February 3rd, 2013, 4:26 pm
by Minneapolisite
Here's an article about the recent uptick of destinations in the neighborhood. Still haven't made it to Marvel Bar, let alone Parlour.
Minneapolis' new North Loop: both cool and comfortable

By Anna Pratt | 02/01/13

Patrick Stephenson bought a condo with his girlfriend in the North Loop, a deceptively quiet offshoot of downtown Minneapolis, just over a year ago.

The timing seemed ideal, and since they had lived in a couple of other spots in the area beforehand, the North Loop already felt like home to the couple. As an added bonus, shortly after he settled into his new digs, Olson, the advertising agency where Stephenson works as a copy editor, relocated from Loring Park to the Ford Center right across the street.

Also within walking distance is the gym he frequents, his favorite coffeehouse, his barber, and several men’s boutiques where he likes to shop. Not to mention a cluster of the city's newest and trendiest restaurants and bars — plus the Mississippi riverfront.

Stephenson, who is also a cofounder of 30 Days of Biking, a month-long biking challenge, describes the North Loop to others as a downtown neighborhood, with all the amenities and benefits that implies, but without the traffic or the noise one might expect. “Everything is so close,” he says. “That’s what’s really cool about North Loop."

More: http://www.minnpost.com/line/2013/02/mi ... omfortable

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: February 3rd, 2013, 4:44 pm
by Nick
Could we all pool our money and buy this building and remodel it?

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: February 3rd, 2013, 5:46 pm
by lordmoke
Could we all pool our money and buy this building and remodel it?
Yes, please! I die a little every time I walk by this thing.

Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Posted: February 3rd, 2013, 9:23 pm
by Minneapolisite
Yeah, I'm with you guys. That's probably the sorest thumb in all of Downtown: I almost feel like I'm in the old red-light(ish) district that used to dominate the area. In fact, let's throw some mattresses up there on the 2nd floor (what flophouse?) and open a dive bar or three on the 1st floor. Come on, three dive bars in the same decrepit building? What hipster could resist?